Flipped

1.20

I mean, why not? Why shouldn't the files be gone? Wasn't that just our luck?

What should I do now? Should I wait around to see if I saw anything, or until someone said something? No, I decided, that was likely useless. I spun and walked toward Taylor. She was now sitting by one of the tables outside the Starbucks. She saw me but only looked for a few seconds, before continuing to nonchalantly gaze around the room. I sat down across from her.

"So," she said, not looking at me, quietly as if talking to herself, "we have a problem?"

"Yup," I said under my breath. "Some of the files are gone. The ones stashed at the bottom and middle. Most of the front row."

"How do you know those are the ones that include your dad?"

"I don't," I said slowly. Privately I scolded myself. I wasn't going to look like a coward. "But the front section isn't alphabetized. I think that they might store new patient files there. And my dad will have never been to this hospital before."

I had been sort-of improvising, but after thinking on it for a second, I realized that was likely what was going on.

"And now it's early," Taylor mused. "Maybe they've changed systems? In the past week and a half?"

"Yeah," I said. "Stranger things have happened. I don't want to come back empty-handed though. I'm going to do some exploring."

"Okay." She sighed. "I wish there was something for me to do to help. Like, distract or something. I guess I'll just be around," Taylor said. "I'll people-watch. Just make sure I don't have to watch you being arrested and carted out of here." She leaned back in the chair and looked right at me and gave me a grin. "Kidding."

"Ha. Ha ha ha." I said with a smirk. I stood up. Where to start?

I walked back to the front desk. Why not the side door into which all the people were walking? In front of me was a younger nurse with a ponytail. I stepped into the space behind her. She pressed her lanyard into the sensor and we walked right into blinking light.

Gone were the trees and the textured grey flooring and the natural lights. This was white fluorescent and tile squares. I blinked quickly, reminding myself that I needed to keep in step.

We walked into a long hallway lined with doors here and there. I sensed that someone was behind me, but I didn't feel like I should turn around right now. What if they noticed the nurse I was trailing and came up to say hi? They'd run right into me! I shuffled to the side.

The hallway was wide enough that I could walk side-by-side with her. Thank goodness. We walked forward, down the hall at a pretty fast pace. She walked with determination. At first I ignored her as I kept pace, but then I realized, duh, she couldn't see me. Also, it probably wasn't good to stand beside her for long - she had no idea there was anyone there, and could easily move to the other side of the hallway. So I slowed my pace, staying by her side.

At least, for a second. A man came out of one of the rooms a few paces in front of us, turned uncomfortably on his heels and walked in our direction. "Hi Sandy," he said, nodding respectfully as he passed and I darted out of the way, between Sandy and the next person walking in our direction, a few paces further back.

Okay. Definitely don't walk beside her, I told myself. She's less likely to dramatically slow down or speed up.

At first it had been pretty empty in the hallways going the other direction, but people kept coming in and out of the various doors, and passing us on the other side. They would nod in her direction, but it was always a curt nod. I could sense nervousness. But that wasn't the case for many of the other staff, I noticed, looking around and gawking and taking advantage of my newfound invisible freedom. Many of the others were very friendly with each other.

Huh. Maybe I should follow one of them, instead?

But something kept me glued to her. My intuition said that I needed to see where she was going. Besides, she seemed like a leader of some kind, or why else would everyone seem scared of her?

Sandy was middle-aged, I saw, and she had her hair clipped short, not far from a buzz cut. I followed her as she turned to the right into another hallway labelled "Admin".

There were less people with us now. I counted two doors to the left, and one to the right, and then, further ahead, the hallway ended at a door with a sign that said 'Administration."

There was a key-card panel beside the door, and Sandy walked towards it. She was a few paces away when I realized that there was a problem. The door was a standard door, not a large automatic one that would stay open for a few seconds. I looked quickly behind me. Oh shit. There was another person coming up! He had just turned into this hallway, so he wasn't right behind us, but he would definitely see if the door froze half-opened as I held it to get in.

Sandy got to the card panel and moved to swipe her card. "Hey, wait up!" the man said. He started to run towards us!

Sandy turned around slowly, and glared at him. But what that meant was that she looked right at ME and glared at him through me. I could see annoyance and disgust. I knew it wasn't me, but I still felt defensive and scared.

But there was no time for that. I had to move! I could hear him running towards Sandy and me. I leaped out of the way.

CREEK

My sneakers! They had made a noise as I slid across the tile floor! Instinctively I crouched down, trying to make myself small.